Airports Council International (ACI) World has revealed this year’s Airport Service Quality awards which highlight the world’s best airports as judged by their customers.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a dramatic impact on global passenger traffic in 2020 as well as changing customer perceptions and expectations of the airport experience. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, airports managed to collect ASQ surveys from their customers throughout the year and 108 awards have been won by 89 individual airports around the world.
Based on new hygiene related questions added to the survey questionnaire, ACI has introduced a new award – ‘Best Hygiene Measures by Region’ – of which there are 33 inaugural winners.
This award provided airports with a reliable method of gauging customer response to new health measures and recognizes airports’ success in responding to the intense focus on hygiene. The new category also complements ACI’s Airport Health Accreditation programme, launched last year, which has resulted in more than 275 airports being accredited already.
Luis Felipe de Oliveira, ACI World Director General said: “ACI’s Airport Service Quality awards represent the highest possible accolade for airport operators around the world. This year more than any other, the awards recognize those airports that have listened to their customers and adapted the services and experiences they offer to meet changing needs and expectations under very trying circumstances.”
“I am proud of the achievements of all ASQ award winners which show their focus on delivering excellence in customer experience and setting an example of excellence for their peers. As we come together as an industry to meet the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the focus on customers that the ASQ programme provides will help guide the way,” Oliveira added.
ACI World said it has entered into a long-term partnership with global travel technology company Amadeus to deliver the ASQ Awards.
Bruno Spada, Amadeus EVP, and Airport IT, said: “We at Amadeus congratulate all the ASQ award winners for their ongoing commitment to delivering an exceptional customer experience in the face of adversity caused by COVID-19. Amadeus shares this commitment, which is why we’ve been investing for many years to bring an integrated platform for all aspects of passenger services to the airport industry, incorporating applications, hardware and services.”
“With a modular cloud platform, airports can better connect to airlines to bring new passenger service innovations like biometrics or contactless to market. They can base operations on a consistent flow of data throughout the entire airport journey, which is the key to delivering a truly smooth experience for passengers, and they can do all this with minimal effort or delay because we’ve taken care of the complexity in the cloud,” Spada noted.
The Airport Service Quality programme is the world’s leading airport customer experience measurement and benchmarking programme. The ASQ Departures programme measures passengers’ satisfaction across 34 key performance indicators. More than half of the world’s travellers pass through an ASQ airport. ACI adapted the rigorous quality control process for the ASQ awards programme to ensure the benchmarking and findings from the ASQ surveys remained of the highest quality during the COVID-19 pandemic.